Elden Ring has spawned enough surrounding work that the ordering question comes up constantly.

Short answer

The short version: it is canon where the developers say it is, and enjoyable regardless.

Adaptations take liberties, and the interesting ones take them deliberately. Assets circulated online are often ripped rather than released, which affects what you can legally do with them. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

Where it fits with the game

Fan work is frequently better than official work and is not the same thing. Canon status is decided by the developers rather than by the adaptation's writers. Everything below is framed around the current state of Elden Ring rather than a launch-week impression. Official art books contain material that never appears in the game itself.

Licensed soundtracks are the most likely part to be missing from a re-release. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. Release order and chronological order are different, and both have their advocates.

Whether it is worth your time

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

  • Look for an official assets page before downloading anything.
  • Expect licensed music to be missing from re-releases.
  • Region and platform change more than people expect, so confirm both.
  • Credit fan artists if you reuse their work.

What is fan-made

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Elden Ring is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

Where to find it legitimately

If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

What exists officially

Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

Where people go wrong

  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.

Elden Ring FAQ

Is this still accurate after the latest Elden Ring update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

Where can I get it legally?

Publisher stores and licensed platforms carry all of it. Anything circulating as a free file is a rip.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Is it canon?

Where the developers have said so, yes. Adaptations produced under licence are frequently their own continuity.

If you only take one thing from this: the answer near the top is the part that matters, the rest is context.